Indo-Saudi friendship put on the front burner

Diplomacy is often practiced through symbolism where the focus is on the unstated, the unwritten and the unspoken. Such diplomatic symbolism was in full flow on Thursday when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hosted a private lunch for Crown Prince Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense.
But before we have a closer look at the Indian prime minister’s special gesture toward Crown Prince Salman and broad points that came up for discussion at the private lunch, it would be more appropriate to give a little historical perspective and discuss the mother of all diplomatic symbolisms in India-Saudi Arabia discourse.
Bilateral relations between India and the Kingdom have of late been going from strength to strength and it was nothing short of crossing the Rubicon for the two sides when the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah paid a landmark visit to India in January 2006. King Abdullah was also the chief guest at India’s Republic Day parade during that visit.
Perhaps the most singular diplomatic symbolism unveiled during King Abdullah’s India visit eight years ago was that the king himself signed the Delhi Declaration, along with the Indian prime minister. The document was released on Jan. 27, 2006 hours before the king’s departure from India.
The king never puts his signatures on any documents during his visits abroad. But the king set aside this tradition in a one-off special gesture with regard to India, indicating his keenness to forge closer all-round relations with India. This was a major diplomatic trophy for India and the India-Kingdom bilateral relations have blossomed since then.
Now getting back to Manmohan Singh’s special gesture toward the Saudi crown prince, the Indian prime minister used this opportunity to hold discussions on ways to boosting trade, investment and security cooperation. Singh thanked Crown Prince Salman for taking good care of Indian Haj pilgrims and the 2.88 million Indians staying in Saudi Arabia.
The Prime Minister’s Office said: “The Prime Minister and the Saudi Crown Prince discussed trade, investment, terrorism and security situation in West Asia and Afghanistan” and also noted that Singh conveyed to the crown prince that “India has a special and warm relationship with Saudi Arabia which we accord high importance.”
On Wednesday, the first day of the crown prince’s three-day India visit; the two sides had signed a defense cooperation pact to take their strategic partnership further in areas of security. The agreement, signed following wide-ranging talks between the crown prince and Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari, will facilitate exchange of defense-related information, military training and education as well as cooperation in such areas as hydrography, security and logistics.
Crown Prince Salman also had a meeting with Indian President Pranab Mukherjee. He had already held meetings with top Indian ministers like Defense Minister AK Antony and External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, thus meeting the entire top political leadership of India.
It does not happen very frequently when entire top Indian political brass engages with a visiting foreign dignitary.
Crown Prince Salman’s India visit is the next big thing after the Indian prime minister’s historic visit to Riyadh in February 2010 during which the two sides had come up with the Riyadh Declaration, which elevated the bilateral engagement to “Strategic Partnership” covering security, economic, defense and political areas. The two sides have never looked back since the king’s ground-breaking visit to India in January 2006 and have made significant progress in bilateral cooperation in such key areas as energy security, trade and infrastructure development projects. Saudi Arabia has become India’s fourth largest partner with bilateral trade in excess of $43 billion in 2012-13. Moreover, Saudi Arabia is also India’s largest crude oil supplier accounting for about one-fifth of our total imports in 2012-13. India obviously attached enormous importance to the crown prince’s visit, the highest political visit from the KSA to India since the January 2006 visit of King Abdullah. What made this visit even more special for India is the fact that the crown prince chose to visit India at a time when India is just weeks away from the general elections and current surveys and opinion polls show that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government headed by Manmohan Singh is likely to face a drubbing at hustings.
Despite the political ground realities the crown prince decided to undertake an official visit to India and that too with a high-level delegation of Cabinet ministers, senior officials and captains of industry in tow. Perhaps, this was Crown Prince Salman’s way of thanking New Delhi and the UPA government for putting India-KSA bilateral ties on the highest-ever trajectory.

n The writer is a New Delhi-based columnist and a strategic analyst who tweets @Kishkindha.